Welcome. My name is Scott also. I've got a couple of children's novels that I plan to publish in the future that have a couple of scenes set in Edmonton (the airport and West Ed Mall). The main characters live in Lloydminster and the boys in the family are big Oilers fans.

About a year ago, we had a period in our church that lasted for several weeks during which I feel safe in saying that my church experienced revival. We had a number of people saved, we had several people join the church, and had quite a few services that saw the altars full. A revival meeting was part of that, but in reality, the movement of the Spirit that we experienced began a couple of weeks before the "official" meeting, and lasted for a few weeks beyond that. Despite the fact that the revival meeting was a key part of what happened, I'd say that a message that my pastor preached entitled "Jesus Is Precious" was the most enduring sermon of that period. The week he preached that message, his wife and kids also sang a song with that same title. Some of you might be familiar with it, as the Blackwood Brothers recorded it back in the 1970s. The morning on which they sang that song featured a particularly memorable service. As my pastor stood up to preach, a lady who was a longtime member of the church stepped out of her pew, walked up to him, and told him that she needed to be saved. As she explained to him, she was afraid that if she waited until after the message, she'd talk herself out of it. The thing that made her realize that she wasn't saved was the realization that Jesus wasn't precious to her. After that morning, He became precious to her. There was no formal message that morning, but after she got saved, our pastor spoke more about how Jesus should be precious in our lives as people flooded the altars. Somewhere near that time, we had a service on a Sunday night in which a spontaneous testimony service broke out with people testifying right and left about why Jesus was precious to them.
Some of you may be wondering at this point why I'm telling the story of something that happened a year ago. Well, that's because it's happening again. We seem to be in another period of revival recently. Again, we've seen several people saved. We've seen people join the church. We've seen services in which the altars filled up. I'd like to tell you about what happened last night. On Wednesday night, I had to make an adjustment to our special music list. One of the older ladies at the church (who has one of the most beautiful soprano voices you can imagine) was on the list for last night, but due to some health issues she's been dealing with lately, she let me know earlier in the week that she wouldn't be able to sing. Wednesday night, I asked my pastor's wife if she could fill in, and she agreed. Yesterday, she asked me to meet with her and the kids to practice. She had decided to sing "Jesus Is Precious" again, and since I had played the piano for them to sing it previously, she asked me to do so again. We met and ran over the song, and it went well. As we walked out of the practice room, I asked her if she remembered what happened the last time they had sung it, and observed that we seemed to be in a similar period.
Last night, after she and her kids sang that song, another spontaneous testimony service broke out. Once again, people were stirred to tell why Jesus was so precious to them. After a couple of people testified, our pastor began encouraging people to share what was on their hearts. The movement of the Spirit was very obvious. People spoke of why the Lord meant so much to them, of why the church did, of why the pastor and his family did, and why one another did. Again, the altars were full, and several people stayed for a while after the service was dismissed. I don't want to give the impression that my church frequently skips the preaching of the word, because that's simply not true. But, every once in a while, hearts are stirred, and people simply can't hold in their stories of what the Lord has done for them. As our pastor reminded us last night, the Bible says to "Let the redeemed of the Lord say so." Most of the time, the Lord speaks to us through the preaching of His word, but sometimes - like last night - He seems to do so through the praise of His people. It's great to have a God so wonderful that sometimes you just have to make your feelings for Him known!

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
Romans 8:28
Romans 8:28 is one of the the most familiar verses in the Bible and one of the verses people most like to "claim." It also seems to be one of the most misunderstood and misapplied. All too often, the misunderstanding arises when someone refuses to simply allow the scripture to say what it says. The most obvious misunderstanding is the fact that the verse does not apply to everyone -- it applies to "them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." This is not a promise that a lost world is in any position to claim, as they do not fit that description. Rather, this promise is one given to true believers who know Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour.
Sadly, even among Christians, there often seems to be major misunderstandings in relation to this verse. Some mistakenly take it to mean that nothing bad can come their way, and they then find themselves completely bewildered when something comes along that rocks their world. In a case like that, it is the first half of the verse that has been misinterpreted and misapplied. There are most certainly bad things that come into the lives of believers. Death is not good. Sickness is not good. Pain is not good. When God created the universe and found His creation to be "very good," those things were not a part of it. They were brought about because of the sin of mankind. The wonderful truth of the matter is, however, that an almighty, sovereign God can take bad things that were not a part of His original creation and use them to work for our good. If you will allow me, I would like to give you a personal account in which I found that to be true.
I will not go into the specific details of my experience because there were other people involved and I do not wish to say anything that would violate their privacy. Suffice it to say, I faced one of those situations that I spoke of earlier that rocked my world. I thank God that I was grounded in His word, because if I had not been, the situation that I lived through could have easily washed me out and severely damaged my faith. It was something that forced me to rely on God far more than I ever had before. It was also something that pushed me to action in something that I had said for years that I wanted to do "one day."
I stated in my introductory post that I have recently published a book. While I did not explicitly state this, if you read between the lines, you might have also deduced that I have a soft spot for kids. Children's ministry is, in fact, one of my greatest passions. I have taught kids' classes at my church since I was 19. I've been one of the sponsors that took my church's elementary school aged kids to camp four times. Vacation Bible School week is one of my favorite weeks of the year. I could continue, but you get the point: I love kids. That thing that I said for so long that I wanted to do but never completed was writing a children's novel.
Ultimately, I truly believe that God held me back from doing in until the time was right. There were a few abortive attempts, but none of them ever went very far, and I never came anywhere near writing a full book. Then, my foundations were shaken. At that time, I decided to try once again to write a book, this time, in large part to keep my sanity. However, I did not want to write just any book. I wanted to write something that would be a help to young people who read it. I wanted it to be an entertaining story, but a story that would teach Biblical values. I wanted it to feature characters that were not ashamed of their Christianity. I wanted it to be something that might be edifying to its readers. Lo, and behold, this time it happened.
I would be lying if I said that there are no longer times that I struggle with what happened in my life two years ago. It was something that completely reordered large parts of my life, and in some very negative ways. I very much wish that what happened would not have happened. If I told you what it was, you would no doubt say the same thing. Even so, I would not undo what it changed in me. As I said, it helped me to learn to trust in the Lord much more than I ever had. It is my natural tendency to worry, but my experiences in these last two years has greatly cut that down. It also strengthened the passion that I already had for young people, and gave me an even greater desire to minister to them. When I think about my own troubles and how difficult they were for me as an adult, if makes me think about how much tougher they are for a child, thus increasing my level of compassion. Since then, I've found that new opportunities to do that, such as the book, have presented themselves, and I see other possibilities on the horizon, no doubt because God has used the trials of my life to give me a fuller understanding of the needs that exist. It is truly amazing to see how He moves.
All things are not good, but we serve a God that is more than capable of using even the bad for our good. He can use those things to strengthen us personally and to make us a better witness to others. Nothing catches Him by surprise, and nothing can thwart His will. I have learned not to say that something can never happen to me. I have been affected by things that I would never have believed could happen. But more than that, I have found that my God can use them all to shape me into someone whom He can more easily use. Yes, for the believer, all things work together for good.

@Standing Firm In Christ What type of books do you write? Do you mind my asking what you do to promote them? I've extremely limited on budget, so I've mostly done mine through Facebook.
I set my account up for direct deposit as well. It's a lot easier, and it makes more sense than waiting to get enough for them to send a paper check. I've had some online sales, but I've done most of mine either selling the books myself or by consignment sales. Then again, since I basically have to do it all on a shoestring, so CreateSpace being so cost efficient was a big factor in my choosing them. I don't have any regrets over choosing them. I fully intend to use them again when I release my next book in a few months.

When you say Swordbooks, Sword of the Lord is the first thing that comes to mind for me. Is that what you're talking about? If not, I'd like to look into what you are referring to. Either way, that might not be a bad idea. I'd have to check into whether or not they'd do print on demand because I published through CreateSpace. Anything that helps get it out is good though. It can't do anyone any good if it doesn't get into their hands.

Hello, everyone! My name is Scott Morris, and as the title says, I'm from Mississippi. I found the forum just now by way of a Google search and thought I'd sign up to see if I can get some thoughts on an idea I have. Back in February, I published my first book, a Christian novel for older preteens and younger teens, and I'm looking for a way to make it more accessible to missionaries. I'm not quite sure where to post my idea, so I thought I'd mention it in my introduction so as to be directed to the right spot.
Anyway, a bit more about me: I've served as the music director at my church for the past five years (yes, it is an IFB church). As you've no doubt gathered from the previous paragraph, I enjoy writing, and for the last two years, I've worked with some friends on a website that does local high school sports coverage, in both writing and photography. Considering the fact that I'm starting to see more and more of those kids open up to me, I'm hoping that might provide some ministry opportunities in the future as well.
I hope this will prove to be a good place to discuss some ministry ideas, and I look forward to seeing you all around the boards!